Oberle's retirement announcement was not the only one
that evening. Pam Thornberg, a 10-year Republican
representative with a district west of Dover, also said
she would not be running for re-election because she is
about to become the administrator of the Delaware Farm
Bureau, where she is currently the public relations
coordinator.

The two new departures, along with one announced
earlier by George Carey from Milford, leave the House
Republicans with three open seats to defend and
complicate their effort to regain the majority they held
for 24 years until 2008. The Democrats control the
chamber 24-17.

Oberle, a 60-year-old retired DuPonter from a
district south of Newark, is one of the oddities of
politics as a pro-labor Republican.

It set him apart from his colleagues, but it was a
fit for his constituents, more than half of them
Democrats, living not far from the Chrysler auto plant
that shut down a year ago and a local headquarters of
the United Auto Workers.

Oberle's leanings did not prevent him from rising in
leadership, first to an abbreviated stint in the
mid-1980s as majority leader, which he acknowledges was
beyond his comfort level and maturity at the time, and
more recently as the co-chair of the Joint Finance
Committee before the House Republicans lost their
majority in 2008.

Still, Oberle was an independent thinker who was most
at ease in his customary perch on the back row in the
chamber. He always seemed to be in the room when the
tough negotiating went on to hammer out the stickiest
legislation.

Only three current legislators, all Democrats, have
served as long or longer than Oberle, who was elected in
1976 -- Speaker Bob Gilligan, elected in 1972, Sen.
Nancy Cook, elected in 1974, and Sen. Harris McDowell,
elected in 1976.

Oberle's departure should set up a ferocious election
for his district, where the registration seriously
favors the Democrats but the Republicans can ill-afford
to lose.

Oberle's caucus mates were not always pleased to have
a pro-labor Republican among them, but it did cheer them
on Election Day when he brought them a district where
the registration was stacked against them.